Improvement in guards for railroad-crossings



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LYMAN L. MCCREA AND ROBERT V. COON, OF TROY, NEW YORK.

IMBROVEMENT IN GUARDS FOR RAILROADCROSSINGS;

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 175,368, dated March 28, 1876; application filed February 14, 1876.

To all 'whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, LYMAN L. MCCREA and ROBERT V. COON, of Troy, in the county of' Rensselaer and 'State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Flange Guards for Railroad Urossings, ot' which the following is a specification Figure 1 is a top view of a portion of a railroad-track at a crossing, illustrating our invention. Fig. 2 is a cross-section of' the same faken through the line zt' Fig. 1.

Similar letters of' reference indicate corresponding parts. l

The invention relates to certain improvements in a device for preventing horses feet from getting caught upon the spike-heads, or between the rails and plankiug, at railroadcrossings.

The invention consists in the guard having one edge formed to fit upon the flange and into the neck of' the rail, and its other edge formed to lit against the edge of the planking, concaved upon its upper side, and provided with a flange and lugs to underlap the planking and the flange of' the rail between the ties, as hereinafter fully described.

A represents the ties, to which the rails B are spiked in the usual way. G is the planking, which is also spiked to the ties A. D is the guard, one edge, dl, of' which is so formed as to fit upon the flange and against the neck ofthe rail, and the upper side of which is concaved, so as to be outot' the wa)1 of the flanges of 'the car-wheels. The other edge d of' the guard is straight, and of a height equal to the thickness of' the planking, so that its top may be flush with the upper surface of said planking. Thel concavity in the upper side of the guard D inclines or curves from its bot tom to the top ofthe edge d, so that the opening between the said edge d2 and the head of the` rail B may be wider at its upper parl. than at its lower part, so that nothing can get caught in or wedged into said space. Upon the lower part ofthe edge d2 ofthe guard D is formed a flange, d3, which linderlaps the planking C, as shown in Fig. 2, and

upon the lower part of' the edge dl of saidguard D are formed lugs d, Which underlap the flange of' the rail B between the ties A, so that the guard D will be kept in place by the said ties, rail, and plankiug, without heilig spiked.

Having thus described our invention, we claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent- The guard D, having one edge, d', formed to t upon the flange and into the neck ofthe rail B, and its other edge formed to [it against the edge ofthe planking O, concaved upon its upper side, and provided with a flange, d3, and lugs d, to underlap the planking C, and the flange of the rail B between theties A, substantially as herein shown and described.

LYMAN L. MCGREA. ROBERT V. COON. Witnesses:

J. 0. COLE, J. W. APPERBY. 

